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Hong Kong Protest Leader Joshua Wong Sentenced to Six Months in Jail

Sentence effectively disqualifies activist from running for office in the next five years

By

Natasha Khan

Updated Aug. 17, 2017 5:34 a.m. ET

HONG KONG—A student icon of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement was effectively disqualified from running for political office for five years after being jailed over protests in 2014 that drew world-wide attention.

The imprisonment of Joshua Wong, who became the skinny, bespectacled teenage face of the 79-day demonstrations demanding freer elections, is the latest move by authorities here to sweep away opponents of Beijing’s tightening control over the city. Since the protests, Mr. Wong has co-founded a new political party...